The present disclosure relates to a gas generating cell, and to a method of producing the gas generating cell.
A hydrogen generating cell of the above-mentioned type is known from German Patent Document DE 35 32 335 C2. This hydrogen generating cell has a zinc anode, a hydrogen cathode and an alkaline electrolyte. The cathode consists of a PTFE-bound metal and/or carbon powder layer which is placed into a metallic network as a current conductor and, on the side preferably facing away from the network, contains a porous PTFE foil which is laminated on, for example, rolled on. This cell can be implemented, for example, by using a zinc/air cell of a commercially available construction, in which case, while air and oxygen are excluded, by closing an exterior circuit, a current flow, which generates hydrogen inside the cell, is generated. The hydrogen leaves the cell by an opening in the housing.
This construction creates the need of being able to implement cells which have a higher capacity than the commercially available zinc/air cells.
The present disclosure relates to a gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup and a sealing ring. The housing accommodates at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The cover accommodates at least the cathode and the separator and, with the sealing ring, forms a preassembled unit to be inserted into the anode cup. The present disclosure also relates to a method of producing a gas generating cell, the gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup, a sealing ring, and at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The method steps include: placing at least the cathode and separator into the cover, thereby creating a preassembled unit; and, inserting the preassembled unit and a sealing ring into the anode cup.
The present disclosure makes use of an inverse construction of the gas generating cell to address, among other aspects, for example, a need for cells having higher capacity than known zinc/air cells.
In comparison to the conventional zinc/air cells and the gas generator cells according to the currently existing construction, the gas generating cell of the present disclosure has different aspects. Thus, the cover of the conventional cell is filled with the zinc powder and the electrolyte, for example, is in the form of a zinc gel. The gas electrode is situated in the cup and lies on the cup bottom which, for the exchange of gas in the environment, has a breathing hole. Because of this arrangement, the cover part must be rotated during the mounting of the cell with its liquid content by 180°, which is a measure which is hard to carry out in a clean manner in the ease of cells with a fairly large content. The cup part with the gas electrode element which lies flat on it often presents problems during the operation, particularly when, during the closing of the cell, warping has occurred in the edge area of the electrode.
In contrast, the gas generating cell, according to the present disclosure has a cup, which now operates as the anode part, and which can be filled with the required quantity of zinc and electrolyte, whatever the form. It remains in this position. The cathode element is placed on it and is then closed off.
As a result of the optional sheet metal dome with the breathing hole, which arches over the gas cathode, a gas chamber is created which can be closed off by bonding agents and is disposed in front of the environment of the cell with which the cell corresponds. In this manner, it can be achieved to keep CO2 and other harmful gases away from the interior of the cell and to minimize water losses to the environment.
A collar or flange constructed according to the present disclosure permits a variety of embodiments of apparatuses equipped with these cells, The preassembled cathode unit with the sealing ring is easy to manufacture and dispose and can then be combined with anode cups of varying depths but with a constant diameter, in order to produce cells of a different gas generating capacity. In this manner, batteries (particularly zinc/air cells) as well as gas generating cells (particularly hydrogen generating cells) can be implemented.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.